"Please do not pester me"--Chapter I. 
And Chapter II. 
People, get out your party hats and noisemakers and break out the champagne, because today is a day to celebrate! It's my sweetest B.'s birthday (sound of crowd roaring and applauding). Oh yeah!
I had hoped to begin showing some Christmas crafting peeks right about now, but I'm slammed with a please-read-again-in-less-than-24-hours-this-234-page-book deadline.
When last we left off, I revealed some Christmas items from an estate sale. Here we have: a giant duck to sew and stuff! B. asked me why on earth I bought it--I mean, come on! Who could resist? If you look closely, you can see that his name is "Danny the Duck."
A French box full of French embroidery floss . . .
And two rockin' vintage t-shirts! The first one speaks for itself, mais oui? And the second one? Well, true confession time: I was a band geek in high school. Yes, it's true . . . And we wore hats very like the one on this shirt, too, so of course I had to have this. Estate sales--they rock!
Two different seasons in beverages (although they were consumed on the same day!). This is a refreshing and summery Watermelon Kiwi Lemonade from Hash House A-Go-Go; apparently the restaurant owner made this lemonade on TV with my girl, Martha Stewart. It was quite delicious, needless to say...
This, on the other hand, is a dark and creamy winter ale. Heady!
Tallulah Mae couldn't wait for Santa--she wanted to sit on the Wise and Benevolent Turkey's lap (all she wanted for Thanksgiving was food, more food!) . . . she is, um, excited.
I try to very quietly give thanks every single day for my wonderful life . . . but since today is the official day, I will very unquietly say: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Some assorted Christmas, cr--, er, stuff!! I love the old jingle bells when they start to tarnish--gives 'em that extra vintage-y look. And you can't really see them closely, but that package with the blue label shows "Tiny Birds." How great--they're tiny, and they're birds: they're Tiny Birds!
Busy week ahead for all of us, so let's just look at some estate sale scoreage (is that "e" in there or not?), shall we? First up: buttons! Yes, I KNOW I have a lot of buttons (quit nodding your head, Dawn H.--but you of all people completely understand! And this stuff all came from a trailer, yay! ). So? Who could resist the plaid buttons? And the white swirly ones? And . . . And . . . And . . .
"What's that you say? I'm the cutest dog in the universe?"
Check it out! This amazing nest fell about 20 or more feet out of a pine tree at this park. We saw it falling, falling, falling . . . thank goodness there was no sign of bird bebes inside.
Look at the construction: pine needles, bits of paper, bits of what look like dog hair--amazing!
And for scale, Miss Tallulah Mae. This shot is a bit deceiving, actually--the nest is bigger than her head. What kind of bird made this? I wish I knew!
Once upon a time, there were three little kittens! (Everytime you type the word "kitten," it must be followed by an exclamation point: kittens!) A black-and-white girlie (not pictured), this darling girl, and the handsome boy below.
They were living in apalling conditions, as you can see--trash, broken glass, who knows what else.
Right by the train and trolley tracks.
They were captured in this makeshift--but very effective--kitten! trap, lured in by the irresistable pungent aroma of sardines.
This little tale will have a happy ending, because these babies were fortunate enough to be rescued by Robin and James--they're SO getting extra good karma points! The kittens! are ensconsed in a veritable kitten! spa--it's warm and it's safe. Lucky little kittens!
So, Miss Robin (of Various and Sunday fame) and I went to Bread and Cie for a chai latte and a nosh (de-LAY-shous blueberry-cornmeal scone). 
Robin hit that garbage can--not once, but TWICE--with wadded-up napkins. A roar went up from the crowd (or at least, from me). She's got mad skills, that girl . . .
I don't mean to gloat or anything . . . (well, perhaps just a little!): imagine my utter delight when I was presented with this little pile o' goodness. It's from Hong Kong, brought over to this side of the Pacific by the nicest person ever, Frances, who went to the Sham Shui Po district (home of the bins of beads in my very first post ever) on Kowloon twice to round up this ribbony bonanza for me. How cool is that?!
There is Christmas ribbon . . . 
And this: check out the dragon on the bottom trim!
Now that the weather has gotten chilly here--OK, I know that some of you in colder climes just snorted coffee out your nose, but it IS chilly!--Tallulah Mae has donned her fuzzy scarf, which matches her coat perfectly. She is so happy. Not.
. . . make buttermilk coffee cake. Which I did, and it was pretty good--but for a simple and basic coffee cake, it's hard to beat the Bisquick version (I have a Martha version that comes close). I'm seeing now that the slice I chose to photograph (I love corner pieces, don't you? Corner brownies rock!) doesn't have NEARLY enough sugar/butter topping on it.
Here is the jolly plastic Hallo(*)een brigade, before they (*)ere put a(*)ay for the season. Cute, no?
Ah, chocolate pudding . . . so yummy. When I was a kid, we'd have Jello chocolate pudding, made by my mom on the stove, and then we'd pour milk over it while it was still warm. Mmmm . . .
Once you've tired of your pumpkin, plant it up with some colorful fall perennials and use it as a centerpiece. (I know, it's rather Martha-esque, but remember, I loves me some Martha!).
It's been an interesting (and frankly, exhausting) few weeks: several family members in and out of the hospital (boo), but one of them got a new kidney (yay); sick with a cold-like thing (blegh); terrible wildfires (oh no; sigh); loads of work (yuck); a good friend diagnosed with breast cancer (damn). So . . . a random photograph of something quite pretty.
